James Horwill has finally expressed his disappointment at being stripped of the Australia captaincy earlier this month.

The 28-year-old has seen his form dip in recent times which lead to head coach Ewen McKenzie taking the armband from him so that he could concentrate on his own game. He was even prepared to demote him to the bench until injury to others forced him to start.

However, Horwill has responded with two good displays in the first two Tests of their European tour and admits that losing the leadership responsibilities may be the reason for that.

"I'm not going to hide the fact I was disappointed," Horwill told the media. "I love what I do and I love being captain of my country. [But] captaining is always about the team, and that's the way you have to look at it.

"I knew myself I wasn't happy with the way I'd been playing, but I guess you can look at it in that sense [being stripped] has given me the opportunity to worry about myself a little bit more. I think maybe my focus did go away from myself individually, and I was more focused on 'what can I do to get the team going'. I hate losing. Maybe that was the thing.

"I might reflect that there were things I could have done differently. It's allowed me to be selfish in my preparations and worry about the way I need to prepare physically and mentally to get right to play."

"I'd love to captain the country again. I take great pride and put a lot of effort into doing it. It's not something I take lightly. It's a huge responsibility and something I did enjoy doing. That's not the priority. My priority is to get my form back and win for the team."

Horwill was replaced as the Wallabies captain by Ben Mowen.

Written by
Matt Cotton